


Perfect Fit

by MayumiSato



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 2018.1 usukustwicerperyear event, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-30 01:18:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16276217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayumiSato/pseuds/MayumiSato
Summary: Arthur, a tailor who specializes in wedding suits, receives an old crush from high school as a client in his store.Fic made for the 2018.1 event, "Uncommon Professions", made by the usukustwicerpereyear blog(I'm the main admin. of the blog and the event, btw)!





	Perfect Fit

Perfect Fit

  
Arthur didn’t decide on having a speciality, really, but that’s what ended up happening. He was a tailor with a small shop in a shopping street and he had always been willing to make and fix all kinds of clothing. Then one day someone posted on the internet photos of some rainbow-colored suits he had made for a set of groomsmen, and after that he went on to receive more clients than ever before, and wedding suits were all they asked for.

Thanks to that, he was able to afford a renovation in his store and his shop went from something that looked like the messy wardrobe of someone who had been stocking clothes for ninety years into an elegant yet cozy environment. Now, it had a comfortable couch, mannequins wearing the suits he made, and hangers with suits he had bought from larger stores for resale. Arthur also was able to bought a small electric kettle to make tea on his counter while he waited for new customers.

Arthur even came to ponder that perhaps having a business and no social network wasn’t a good idea, but in the end he was too traditionalistic to make changes in the way he advertised his work and ended up leaving his reputation be made by other people’s posts, which meant that it never changed.

To be fair, this wasn’t a bad fate. Arthur was fond of creating wedding suits. Generally, men had such low expectations of what they wanted to wear in their own marriage that they almost always looked like black squares when left on their own to choose their suits. It was depressing. A tailored suit, made by a tailor who sought to understand his client’s style and personality, had a visible positive effect on their appearance. For Arthur, the most exciting part of his job was to see one of his clients feeling legitimately excited, or better yet, more confident in himself, in one of his suits.

This made up for the fact that Arthur’s work was frequent and exhausting. He did it all on his own, since he didn’t want to have assistants interfering with his vision or getting some details wrong, but working alone often resulted in all-nights spent with his sewing machine.

Another stressful side of the job was, of course, the customers. There were those who were too picky, those who changed their mind all the time, those who wanted suits made with extremely expensive materials by a ridiculously low price...  Yes, there were all kinds of customer that Arthur associated with problems, but he never thought that Alfred F Jones would be one of them.

Oh, yeah. Alfred F. Jones.

The afternoon he appeared, Arthur was sitting by the counter, sipping his tea, when he came in and spoke in that loud, cheerful, impossible to ignore voice of him: 'Ah, hi, Arthur! I heard you make suits for weddings! So this is your store?'.

Arthur was so shocked to recognize this voice that instead of sarcastically replying, ‘No, no, I just like to have tea in empty suit shops’, he choked on his green tea, needing to be rescued by Alfred.

It was one of the worst reencounters of all, honestly.

 

* * *

Alfred was a little taller, a little stronger and a little less tanned, and he had glasses now, but Arthur recognized him instantly at the sound of his voice, and when he laid eyes on him, he had no doubt that it was Alfred.

Yes, of course he knew him. Alfred was a former high school classmate with whom he had practically no contact since then. It was no surprise considering that they were never really close. Arthur was the typical artistic and introverted gay boy, and Alfred was all that testosterone wanted you to be at puberty, playing American football, drinking Gatorade as a fuel and enjoying life with his bros.

They were too different to be friends, but that didn’t stop Arthur from admiring in the distance Alfred’s muscles appearing against his shirt as he passed the corridor or felt his knees weaken a little when Alfred greeted him. Arthur always found Alfred more handsome and likable than he had a right to be, when he was so obviously straight.

After ten years, Arthur thought he had matured enough to have more refined tastes for men. However, seeing Alfred F. Jones close to him, slapping his back as he choked on his tea, Arthur felt his heart flutter because of him, as if he were a silly teenager again. He felt his knees weak and his face warm because, damn it, it was Alfred F. Jones!

Bloody hell. Apparently, his taste on men had not changed in all those years.

"Are you ok now?" Alfred asked after Arthur stopped coughing for a while. Arthur nodded, although he still didn’t feel able to speak, for many reasons.

With a sigh of relief, Alfred let him be and went back around the counter, walking around the store and checking the suits displayed on the hangers and mannequins while releasing several exclamations like ‘Wow! This is some James Bond shit, dude!’ and ‘Wooah! So fancy!’. He was still an easily excited and, fortunately for Arthur, easily distracted guy like he had always been.

While Alfred appreciated the place, Arthur tried to compose himself enough to at least not look like an idiot in front of a potential client. Alfred had come to his store and, judging by what he said when he arrived, he probably wanted a suit for a wedding.

Alfred F. Jones was about to get married and he had been so dense during all those years of high school that he choose Arthur of all people to make the suit for his wedding.

No, dammit. Arthur couldn’t have those thoughts. He had to be professional.

'Get a hold of yourself,’ Arthur thought, clenching his fists and biting his lip a little, ‘It doesn’t matter if he's more handsome than you remembered him to be. It does not matter if you are starting to have an existential crisis with the fact that the person you were head-over-heels for in high school is getting married and you, the forever single friend, will have to make his suit. You're twenty-eight, for God's sake. Be professional. You have been silent for two minutes. Say something!'.

"So you're getting married, huh?" Arthur ended up saying, wanting to hit his own face after saying that. That had been too straightforward! It was a strange first sentence to say to someone you had not seen in so many years!

"Oh no! Not me!" Alfred laughed, shaking his head and crossing his arms, forming an 'X' "Just a friend of mine! From high school! Brad! You know who Brad is, right?"

Arthur had no idea who Brad was. He supposed he was one of Alfred's American football buddies.

Welp, that was better than preparing a wedding suit for Alfred.

"Brad... " Arthur repeated the name, as if the memory was beginning to come to mind, though in fact he still had no idea of who it was.

"You know, Brad! Brad Cooper?" Alfred asked with a much brighter smile “You can’t have forgotten Brad! He was one of the coolest guys in school! Handsome, good athlete, great sense of humor! How come you don’t remember Brad? Brad is awesome!"

Alfred was really passionate in the way he talked about that Brad. Usually men were so much more restricted in displaying their affection for their mates and Arthur thought it was really endearing how Alfred talked about his friend so foundly.

Unfortunately, his description didn’t ring a bell in Arthur’s mind. All the guys in Alfred's group looked almost the same in his memories. In his mind, they were all a blur of Axe spray and sweat.

"Are you Brad's best man, then?" Arthur asked, giving up trying to remember that specific guy.

"That’s right! And I want to be dressed to impress everyone at the party! I've heard that your suits are the best, so I want one made especially for me!"Alfred stated, winking at Arthur and giving him a thumbs-up.

It seemed a simple enough job, as long as Arthur himself kept in mind all the time that Alfred had not tried to contact him in all those years, and even if he was not the groom, he was straight and therefore, inaccessible to Arthur.

Arthur sighed and walked to Alfred’s side, his hands in the pockets of his pants.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do for you."

 

* * *

The first part of Arthur's job was a conversation with his client. They sat together on his couch, drank tea, and talked while Arthur wrote down all the information he needed on a notebook. Before designing a suit, there were a number of things he needed to know about his client.

Usually, Arthur would sit right next to his client to show him some drafts of what the suit might look like. In this case, though…  He was talking to the first guy he'd ever liked. Arthur felt each brush against their shoulders as if there were electricity on his skin, and the scent of Alfred’s cologne made his head spin. Therefore, he had to keep a safe distance and ask for Alfred to sit on one end of the couch while he sat at the other end.

"First question… " he said to Alfred, trying to keep his eyes focused on the paper "Are you going to wear a waistcoat with your suit? Or are you just going to wear a tie with it?"

“I don’t know... What do you think I should do?”

Mental images of Alfred in the both of these looks passed into Arthur's mind quickly and oh, had anyone turned on the heater? It felt a bit hot in there.

"A waistcoat would make the look more formal," he replied, moistening his lips with the tip of his tongue.

"Okay, with a waistcoat then. It's a wedding, after all." Alfred said, laughing uneasily. "To be honest, I have no idea of how to use formal clothes ... I'm a hoodie kind of guy."

Oh, that was a little surprising. Arthur would have thought he'd be more of a very-tight-t-shirt-showing-off-his-muscles kind of guy, judging by the way he dressed in high-school.

"You can help me by letting me know more about you," Arthur grumbled, looking away a little embarrassed. He didn’t want to look like he wanted to learn more about Alfred for any reason other than his job. "Saying that you like hoodies already helps me because that tells me that comfortable clothing is something important to you..."

"Heh, aren’t you a Sherlock Holmes?" Alfred joked. "Usually, I would prioritize comfort, but not this time. In this marriage, I want to be the sexiest thing around. I don’t care if the clothes will kill me. I want to look stunning. "

Okay, there was the Alfred he knew, an Alfred who used to torture people with how well he looked on certain clothes.

That aside, that was a strange request for a best man. 'I want something formal, practical and comfortable', was the standard request of most of them. Rarely did one of them want to stand out so much, unless …

"Who's going to be at this wedding?" Arthur guessed, looking up at Alfred's face, unable to disguise that he was intrigued.

Alfred’s eyes become wide like plates and his chin slightly dropped.

"W-What are you talking about? I don’t know!"Alfred grinned a bit awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not like I'm from the couple's family! Haha!"

There was definitely someone at that wedding Alfred was interested in... Maybe one of the bridesmaids? Then again, if that was it, why hide it? The bride seemed like a more palpable guess, considering Alfred’s strange behaviour, but it wasn’t very Alfred-like to try to steal a friend's girl. He has always been a good person. Loud and clumsy, certainly, but with the heart in the right place.

"If you don’t want to say, that's fine." Arthur shrugged, resigned. "That wouldn’t help me with my work anyway."

"Soo serious and business-like!  You haven’t changed at all, Arthur!" Alfred laughed.

Oh, did Alfred remember anything about him? That was a little unexpected. What did he remember? Would he find it strange to know that Arthur remembered things about him, too?

"Is your favorite color still blue?" Arthur asked, making notes in his notebook just to have a distraction to his eyes.

"Yes, it is!" Alfred exclaimed excitedly. "Wow, you still remember that?"

Yes, Arthur remembered. He learned of Alfred's favorite color because of a day when Alfred came to visit him in the Arts club room to ask if he could help repair the mascot clothes that had ripped up in the last game.

The mascot's outfit was basically a giant dog costume that Arthur found kind of scary because of his weird eyes. Arthur agreed to fix it and asked if Alfred wanted any changes on it. ‘Since you’re asking…’, Alfred said, 'Can you change those weird wide eyes it has? I can see from your face that you're scared of it and, honestly, same, dude. Also! It would be cool to include, I dunno, some blue details in his clothes! Blue is my favorite color!'.

"There's no way I forgot the day I made a demon turn into a normal dog." Arthur from current time joked.

"Yeah! His transformation was incredible. You've always been super-talented!"

This compliment made Arthur blush and immediately berate himself for it. He was 28 years old for goodness’s sake.

"I... I think a navy blue suit in the right fabric would look great on you," he suggested "It would highlight your eyes."

“Oh, cool! Can I wear blue to a wedding? I thought I had to wear like gray or black.”

“Of course, you can. It’s a marriage, not a black-and-white movie." Arthur smiled and Alfred laughed at this joke, which filled his heart of joy. "No matter the color of the suit, if it is well adjusted, you will look very proper on it. Speaking of which, do you have something in mind for the style you want to wear?”

"Hm... I've heard that loads of people are wearing slim fit suits today! Since I want to look sexy and they’re pretty tight, that sounds like a good idea, right?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. Everyone asked for slim fit suits because they were popular. They didn’t understand that there was no kind of suit that suited all people.

"Wrong. Slim fit suit are for lean people and with your amount of muscles, they wouldn’t do much for your body or be very comfortable to wear."

"Oh, did you notice my muscles?" Alfred teased, arching an eyebrow with a smile that made a shiver run through Arthur's spine.

Arthur did his best to appear nonchalant.

 "What kind of tailor would I be if I didn’t notice something so obvious in someone's body?" Arthur huffed, trying to sound unaffected by Alfred’s provocation, but he accidentally tossed himself into a trap.

“So obvious, huh?” Alfred repeated with smugness. “It would do me good to be praised like this more often.”

"I recommend an Italian cut for you." Arthur changed the direction of that subject for the sake of his pride. "It fits more easily into different body types and it gives a look of power to the person wearing it that..."

Unfortunately, even with his attempt to change the subject, Alfred's smile showed that his thoughts were still in the same place.

"Stop smiling like that," Arthur muttered in embarrassment.

“I dunno what you’re talking about.” Alfred said, smiling like that even more.

That wanker. That bloody sexy wanker.

"Uh, as I was saying..." Arthur cleared his throat, "Italian cut. It is tight around the waist and in the chest region. However, the sleeves and the shoulders are broad. I think it would look great on your body type."

"In my muscular body type." Alfred smiled. Arthur felt like throwing his tea in Alfred’s face.

"Exactly," he replied with an almost lethal look, leaving the threat of 'if you continue with these jokes, I will not be held accountable for what might happen' in the air. "By the way, this type of suit usually has wide lapels and I intend to keep it. Young people wear thin lapels, usually, but since you'll be wearing a waistcoat, I think a wide lapel would be a better match for it. It's a proper wedding suit, after all."

"Okay... I think I get it!" Alfred replied, still looking slightly confused. Oh well. He would understand when Arthur drew it for him.

"I'd also like to put double openings in the back." Arthur wrote down on his notebook. "It's more modern and elegant and you'll have more room to put your hands in your pockets." Arthur knew that this last part would be useful because Alfred had a habit of putting his hands in his pockets when he was younger.

“Oh, yeah! Nice! That would be cool!”

"Two buttons on the jacket... " he continued to think and add more and more information to his notes "And I think I'd like a striped print ... Navy blue with fine white stripes... "

"You really get focused on those things, don’t ya?" Alfred asked suddenly, and when Arthur looked up to say that he obviously had to, Alfred was sitting about an inch from him. Arthur almost had a sudden cardiac arrest.

Placing his hand over his own heart, he practically jumped off the couch, dropping his notebook on the floor and staring at Alfred with wide eyes.

“W-What were you doing?! Don’t approach me all of sudden! My heart almost stopped right now!”

"See? Super-focused," Alfred answered casually. "You were like that in high school, too. When you were drawing, you seemed to forget everything around you. "

"I didn’t even know you were paying attention to me in highschool!" Arthur exclaimed, letting his emotions escape because he was still somewhat vulnerable.

“What can I say? You were interesting!" Alfred surprised Arthur with this answer. Interesting??? Him??? "I mean, there weren’t many LGBT people in our school. Of course I wanted to know more members of the community!"

He said ‘more members’ as if he knew members of the community in their school already. There wasn’t any that Arthur knew. If there was any, then really, why did Alfred know about it and Arthur didn’t?

That aside, it was a little frustrating for Arthur to be aware that Alfred's interest in him was the kind of interest one would have for an exotic animal.

"I'm going to draw your suit now," Arthur grumbled, fixing his clothes and getting back to the couch. He hoped Alfred would go back to sit on the other end of the couch, so they would be positioned as they were before, but no. Alfred sat down right next to him, leaning over his shoulder to see the progress of his drawing.

However, precisely because he was right next to him, leaning over his shoulder, Arthur couldn’t do any progress.

"... Can you give me some space?" He had to ask directly, "I can’t concentrate like this."

"Ah yes! Sorry, sorry!" He recoiled, putting his hands up like a criminal caught in the act. "Should I go back to where I was before?"

“Yes, please.”

Alfred sat at a comfortable distance once more, and Arthur was able to think again.

 

* * *

Arthur finished his drawing in ten minutes and then explained to Alfred each part of the components of his suit and how they would work together. He had no criticism of what Arthur proposed and was very excited to see the drawing. Apart from the fact that Alfred was Alfred, he was a very simple customer to work with.

Still...  Alfred was Alfred, and Arthur was excruciatingly aware of that when he went to take his measurements. To try to distract himself and not be nervous about the fact that he was touching his highschool crush for the very first time, he decided to do a bit of small talk:

"Who is the person Brad is going to marry?" Arthur asked as he measured the distance between Alfred's shoulders with his measure tape.

"A girl he met in college. She ... She's cool, I guess. "Alfred, without even realizing it, winced a bit at saying this. "Kinda pretty."

"But?" Arthur guessed that something was being held in the midst of these weak compliments. Being done with measuring his shoulder-length, he walked in front of him to start measuring the length of his arms while doing his best to avoid eye contact.

"I feel like... I always thought that when Brad found a girl ... that she had to be really outstanding, you know?" Alfred sighed for some reason. "Like, in a totally different level than the average girl. Truly someone out of this world. Brad didn’t have many girlfriends and they never lasted long. He always said he had more fun with his friends than with any girl, so ... it was a shock when he announced that he was going to get married.”

Hm. Alfred's expectations for his friend’s girlfriends seemed rather unrealistic. Honestly, Arthur thought Alfred was the only one in his old group who really deserved someone spectacular. The other guys were pretty generic, in Arthur's opinion. A pretty and cool girl was more than good enough for them.

“Are things working out between them?” Arthur wondered.

"They are, they are ... They like each other very much ..." Alfred answered in a voice devoid of any enthusiasm. "I know... he's happy with her."

It was pretty obvious that there was something bothering Alfred in that whole story.

"Are you jealous of them?" Arthur asked boldly. This subject, while risky to talk about, was a good distraction from the fact that he had finished with Alfred’s arms measures and now would have to measure Alfred's chest — a part of his body that he had always, always wanted to touch.

"I'm not," Alfred replied with an almost childlike pout.

"I don’t buy it." Arthur replied merely, passing the tape around Alfred's chest. "You know, it's normal for you to be envious of a happy couple when you're single."

"Oh! Do you feel envious of happy couples?" Alfred asked, seeming legitimately surprised at this possibility.

"You just assumed I was single." Arthur said in a dry tone, pulling the tape from Alfred's chest and wrapping it around his neck.

“Ahh! Are you going to strangle me for it?”

"No, I just need to measure your neck."

“Phew!" Alfred laughed, putting his hand on his chest. "Well, about what I said ... My bad. You've never dated anyone in high school and you never seemed interested in it so... "

There was someone Arthur liked in high school, but it would be better not to elaborate on this matter with Alfred.

"Though it was rude of you to assume that, you're right." Arthur sighed resignedly, pulling the tape away from Alfred's neck and wrapping it around his waist. "I’m currently single."

“That’s okay, dude! I’m also single now!”

... Arthur didn’t know if that thought comforted him or made him feel even more tense.

It was a bit risky to think about the fact that they were both single considering that Arthur had finished with Alfred's waist and was bending down to measure the length of his legs, which left him in a very suggestive position.

"Hey, how's the view from there?" Alfred joked, leaving Arthur immensely irritated.

"Magnificent," he retorted _sarcastically_ , but still, Alfred blushed at hearing it.

"You really know how to praise a guy, Artie. I should come here more often. It would do my self-esteem well." He laughed, still red, rubbing his neck and looking away.

Now Arthur was more embarrassed about Alfred's reaction than of his current position itself.

"Umm... Did you keep in touch with everyone from your old group after high school?" Arthur asked, again searching for a distraction in a somewhat tense moment for him.

"More or less? I mean, once in a while, we exchange messages and schedule a meeting of the old group but...  Brad was the only one I kept really close to. We went to the same college and all that...  I can’t even imagine getting away from Brad. He really is... "Alfred gave a kind of smile that Arthur had never seen on his face before. "He's... "Alfred swallowed and suddenly got a little more serious. "... a good friend."

Arthur was sincerely surprised at how open Alfred was about the value of his friendship with that Brad. He began to wonder if Alfred's feelings about that wedding were, instead of envy or attraction to the bride, just a fear of being left behind by friends arranging a new life.

There was something that Arthur repeated a lot to himself about the subject he felt he needed to tell Alfred now.

"Listen...  I don’t know what you've done in your life in the last few years or if I have the right to give you advice but..." Arthur said, using the fact that he was measuring the inner side of Alfred's legs as a excuse to not look directly at him. "... you shouldn’t feel bad for what others have that you don’t. Your life is yours and you have to conquer the good things of it and experience the bad things without comparing yourself with others. The concept of victory and loss is different for everyone so try to enjoy yours instead of just watching other people’s lives. You will never really know how they are experiencing it. "

After that, Alfred was silent for about a minute. Arthur got legitimately nervous with the possibility of having offend him.

However…

"Pff, so you’re a tailor AND a life coach? Now I know why you're so successful!" Alfred laughed loudly. That jerk.

"Shut up." Arthur rolled his eyes, giving Alfred’s leg a very light disapproving slap before stooding up.

Oh well. He should have expected Alfred wouldn’t listen to him. Alfred was not exactly the type to stop to analyze his own life and think hard about his decisions. It was silly on Arthur's part to expect that he would cause a great revelation on Alfred or something.

After all, as far as Arthur knew, perhaps even Alfred himself wasn’t understanding his true feelings about that wedding.

 

* * *

After finishing measuring Alfred, Arthur gave him a price for the suit (which secretly involved a discount) and he told Alfred to come to get it in a month. It would be ready two weeks before the wedding, which was the ideal time for an adjustment, if necessary.

Alfred was very pleased with this and left the store with a big smile.

For a month, Arthur hadn’t heard from him. This was expected, since Alfred was only a former colleague, who had hired him for the efficiency of his work, not for personal reasons. Still... When they saw each other again, a small part of Arthur had wondered if there was no way they would somehow reconnect. However, with the days passing with a complete lack of news from Alfred, he felt stupid for thinking so.

On the agreed day, Arthur had Alfred’s suit ready for him. Modesty aside, he thought he had done an excellent job. That suit was comfortable, modern and perfectly adjusted to Alfred's body. Arthur couldn’t wait to see Alfred in it. He was really proud of his work.

 

* * *

 

Alfred came during lunchtime.

Usually, Arthur wouldn’t let someone who arrived during his lunch break enter the store. He was busy eating some sushi he had ordered in and he really wanted to ignore the sound of the doorbell outside. Urgh, but then he saw through the window that the client at the door was Alfred. Not to mention it was raining and the idiot hadn’t brought an umbrella.

Arthur left his sushi on the counter and went to open the door for him with a displeased expression.

"Didn’t you see the sign on the door?" Arthur pointed to the sign that read ‘Closed for Lunch Break’.

"Ah ... Oops?" Alfred said playfully, laughing and putting his hand on his nape. His hair was dripping and the white shirt he was wearing looked practically glued in his body because of the water.

"Come on, you're going to end up having a hypothermia out there." Arthur gave in, gesturing for Alfred to follow him.

Alfred was hugging himself and shaking a little, and that inspired a bit of pity in Arthur's heart. He decided to be kind to him.

"Do you want some hot tea?" He offered.

“Nah, man. Tea is gross. Let the sweet arms of Death take me instead.” Alfred replied with a cheeky grin, still hugging his body and shaking with cold. URGH. WHAT A FUCKING...

Professionalism, Arthur. Professionalism.

"Very well. At least, take off that wet shirt."

Alfred did so immediately. In the middle of Arthur's store. Humming the theme song of The Pink Panther and slowly raising his shirt, as if he was doing a striptease.

Arthur felt his whole face burn.

"You... Why are you ...?!" He was barely able to articulate his words. There was an unpredictable Alfred shirtless and wet in the middle of his store, and frankly his brain was barely managing to process all of this.

"You didn’t want me to do that? My bad. "Alfred apologized, putting his wet shirt over his shoulder, as if it were a towel. "So? Where's the suit?"

"It would be better if you dried yourself first before putting it on …"

"It's all right. I'll buy it anyway. "Alfred shrugged, twisting his shirt to get the excess water out.

 There was something about Alfred's behavior that was ... odd. Something in his eyes wasn’t matching his smile. He was more erratic than normal. Alfred was rather playful, usually, but that afternoon, he seemed to be smiling and making jokes almost like an automatic command. No gesture, no word, seemed to be coming out of him naturally.

It wasn’t Arthur's place to interfere with these things, though. He was no ‘life coach’. If Alfred wanted to ruin his suit at first use, that was his call. He took Alfred's suit that was properly wrapped in a plastic bag and offered it to him.

"You still need to get a tie." he informed. "Remember that it needs to be darker than your shirt."

"Okay, okay. Understood. Tie." Alfred answered in a hurried, uninterested manner. "Where's the changing room?"

 _Now_ he remembered the changing room!

"It’s there." Arthur pointed out the back of the store where the room was located.  

“Okay, thanks.”

While Alfred got changed, Arthur took the time to take a deep breath and continued eating his sushi.

His heart was racing a little.

He had managed to realize that something was wrong with Alfred. He didn’t know what it was and doubted he could guess and yet, he really felt for Alfred. Alfred was ... Although annoying at times, he was still an endearing person with a golden heart. He treasured his friends, he was always nice to him and his jokes were quite innocent. Overall, he was a good fella and, naturally, Arthur got worried about him, as he would about any good person seeming to be at a bad spot.

Still, Arthur couldn’t afford the energy to continue to feel anxious about Alfred. After all, in the end, he would probably never know what was happening to him and much less get a chance to help him. He and Alfred hadn’t had contact for years. He was only doing a job for Alfred and even that would probably end on that same day. Being anxious in this situation would simply be an expense of Arthur’s emotions.

Knowing that, he tried to calm down and concentrate on the taste of his lunch.

"I'm done," Alfred said dejectedly from the changing room.

"Great. Come here and let me see you so I can check if I need to fix anything. "Arthur replied.

“Yeah, man. I need a lot of fixing.” Alfred laughed dryly.

That comment made Arthur think “god, I hope he didn’t wear the suit completely wrong and ruined it”. However, when Alfred appeared, even without a tie and with a damp shirt, he looked simply wonderful. His clothes fit him perfectly.

Arthur probably stared at Alfred way more than he should, and the proof that Alfred wasn’t acting normal was the fact that he didn’t point that out. In fact, he made no comment at all, remaining mysteriously silent.

"Did you like it?" Arthur had to ask directly.

Alfred pouted and frowned.

"Yeah, it looks great but..." his lower lip began to tremble and tears began to gather in his upset eyes "... it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.”

That moment fell upon Arthur like lightning. It was fast, unexpected and let him completely dumbstruck.  

"Are you crying?" Arthur asked incredulously. It was an insensitive question, which came instinctively to him. It wasn’t even necessary, given that Alfred was evidently crying. He was sobbing. Thick tears were falling from his eyes and his nose was running. Something inside him seemed to have collapsed and he was crying loud and messy, right in the middle of Arthur's store.

What was happening? What had caused that? The suit?

“No, I’m not fucking crying.” Alfred answered between sobs, rubbing his eyes. “Do you think I’m a wimp? Huh??”

Arthur rolled his eyes and pulled a handkerchief from the pocket of his jacket, getting closer to Alfred to wipe his face.

"You don’t need to do this!" Alfred reacted energetically. "I'm not crying!"

"Yes, but you're still covered in rainwater." Arthur answered, ignoring what he was saying and running the handkerchief on one of his cheeks. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that Alfred was crying but pointing that out would only make Alfred more defensive. If Alfred didn’t want to admit how he was feeling, Arthur wouldn’t force that.

His decision seemed right. As Arthur said those words, he could see a mixture of surprise and relief appear clearly inside Alfred's eyes.

“Ah...”

"I don’t want water on my work." Arthur added.

With that, Alfred relaxed. He seemed aware that there was a silent agreement between them, in which neither of them would comment on the fact that he was crying like a baby.

“Okay...”

Arthur continued to wipe his face. Alfred's crying had subsided, but long tears continued to flow gracefully down his skin.

After he calmed down, Arthur took his handkerchief away from his face but stood close, and risked the question:

“What did you mean by ‘it doesn’t matter’?”

Alfred hesitated. Arthur could see in his face, in the way he started to mess up his hair, that he was uncertain whether to explain himself or not. In the end, he decided to speak, although he didn’t start with a straight answer. Instead, he started by revealing:

“Today, I went to see Brad’s fiancé in the final dress proof.”

"It was nice of her to invite you." Arthur pointed politely, a little confused at how this was associated with what had just happened.

"Yeah, that was nice. She looked beautiful." Alfred sighed, pushing Arthur lightly by the shoulders to put some distance between them. Hugging his own body and staring at the floor, he said in a weak voice. "She was so happy. She was practically shining." A pained smile flickered on Alfred's face. "I ... I understood better why Brad chose her … and that made me realize ...", Alfred's smile disappeared with the same speed in which it appeared, "... they are going to get married. I can’t compete with this person. I can’t compete with her. "

Arthur’s guess was correct, then. Alfred was afraid of being left behind by his friend now that he was getting married.

"Listen. If you have a true friendship with this Brad, his wedding won’t end it. His bride is his bride. She isn’t replacing his friends."

"You're wrong." Alfred said in a very quiet but certain voice.

"You think she's competing with you for his friendship?" Arthur asked, making it clear in his tone that he doubted it.

"I'm not thinking about our friendship!" Alfred bellowed, punching his own thigh. That explosive reaction caught Arthur by surprise, making him completely unresponsive. "I know we're going to stay friends! I know she's good for Brad! But I ...! "at that point Alfred gave Arthur a desperate look "... I always, always liked Brad, man! Since high school! "

…

Oh.

"I knew that my feelings would never be returned." Alfred added in a choked voice, sobbing and covering his face with his hands. "I just wanted to remain the most important person to him. I just wanted to keep sharing my life with him. He always said, 'I don’t want to tie myself to any girl, Al. Being able to hang with my buddies all the time is the best thing in life.'. I never wanted to tie myself to anyone too because I thought he would do the same and now this? What the hell, man! What the hell!"

Arthur was speechless. He needed a moment to process what he had just heard.

Alfred F. Jones wasn’t straight. He had been in love for years with his high school friend. A friend who was about to marry a woman. And Alfred was suffering because of it. This was sad because ... Alfred didn’t deserve to suffer for anyone. He wouldn’t normally have to suffer for anyone. Guys like Alfred hardly had to deal with rejection but the fact that he was a man in love with his straight best friend completely changed the situation. Not only did he have to deal with rejection, but he had to deal with it without even confessing first. From the beginning, he never had any chance.

Arthur could understand his feelings. He could understand them so well. Maybe he couldn’t understand everything that had happened to Alfred or whatever was going on in his mind at that moment, but he understood the complexity of Alfred's feelings and how difficult it was for him to go through that without apparently having someone with whom he could talk about it.

Alfred needed to talk, but at the same time he was defensive. He probably didn’t want to be questioned or criticized, since he probably already did this a lot by himself. Also, he probably wouldn’t react well to pity, considering he didn’t want to look like ‘a wimp’.

Arthur, therefore, could only think of one way of comforting him.

"Straight guys are the worst." Arthur joked with a weak laugh.

Alfred blinked, surprised to hear such a joke under those circumstances. Then he laughed genuinely, relieved, as a few more tears fell from his eyes:

“Yeah, the worst.”

 

* * *

After this joke, the atmosphere between them became less tense. Alfred sat down on the couch and invited Arthur to sit by his side and Arthur quickly complied. He then began to talk about his entire story with Brad, from high school to present time, and to vent all the complicated feelings he felt about being the best man of the guy he loved. Alfred talked, talked and talked. And Arthur listened to him patiently, trying to not interrupt. He knew that it was important for Alfred to speak freely. The focus had to be on him, not on what Arthur thought about the whole story.

When Alfred finally had nothing to say, Arthur put his hand on his back and comforted him silently. Alfred closed his eyes and leaned on his shoulder. They stayed like this for a few moments and it was really nice and felt much more comfortable and natural than what Arthur thought any physical contact with Alfred could be.

Then, suddenly…

"The rain has passed." Alfred pointed out, moving away from Arthur and standing from the couch. "I think I'm going back now."

It was an abrupt remark that made it seem like Alfred had just turned off the switch that triggered his sentimental side. To make things even weirder, that was followed by Alfred hurriedly walking to Arthur's door, without even taking his suit off, talking to him about the payment or thanking him for all the time he'd listened to his love affairs. It was as if he was pretending that none of the last forty minutes had just happened.

"Aren’t you going to change to your normal clothes again?" Arthur couldn’t help but ask.

That comment caught Alfred by surprise. Clearly he had not even thought about it. He had only acted on instinct.

"Uh..." Alfred looked embarrassed. It became clear that he was awkwardly trying to escape an uncomfortable situation now that he was calm enough to be aware of it.

Alfred wasn’t in denial. He was just ashamed.

Alfred was really hopeless sometimes. That was utterly adorable.

"It's okay." Arthur smiled encouragingly. "I think you look great on it."

Alfred gave him a smile as soft as a sigh. His eyes met Arthur's, emitting a warm, gentle feeling.

"Thank you very much." he said sincerely, before nodding and leaving.

* * *

Two weeks after the date for Brad's wedding, Alfred hadn’t yet paid for his suit, and Arthur was beginning to get worried. He even began to wonder if it was not possible that he had fallen into a new scheme in which an old classmate from high school days orders a suit for his friend's wedding and then tells a sad story about his unrequited love for that friend in order to not pay the bill.

The worst part of that all was that Arthur didn’t dare to contact Alfred to talk about the payment. Considering the circumstances in which Alfred had left the shop last time, it wouldn’t be too polite to call him to ask about money, Arthur thought. On the other hand, precisely because of what had happened on his last visit, Alfred could be afraid to contact him. This idea was palpable but terribly uncomfortable because it meant that in addition to losing his payment, Arthur could lose all contact with Alfred. This time, definitively.

If Alfred was not even coming back to pay his bill, he certainly wouldn’t come back to see Arthur again.

"Arthur! Oh, gee, are you with a client now? Can I wait for you to finish? I wanna talk to you."

Arthur's heart actually gave a flip-flop in his chest when Alfred appeared at the store on a sunny Wednesday afternoon while Arthur was attending an executive who needed a suit for an important meeting.

He had almost given up on waiting for Alfred and was completely off guard with his appearance. He was barely able to disguise how nervous he got. Restlessly, he stared at the door and looked at his client several times, before raising his hand, asking for some time for his client before running to the door.

"Ah ... Uh ... Sit down! There! Don’t leave! I will be done soon!" He exclaimed, red and breathless, to Alfred, pointing to the couch.

For Arthur, feeling anxious was inevitable. Alfred was back and, blimey, he looked much better than before. There was more of a sparkle in his eyes, a new vigor in his features ... Had time done him well or did well to Arthur's impression of him? Arthur didn’t know what it was, but definitely he looked even better now than he looked when they met again for the first time.

Arthur found it difficult to focus on his client. He tried. He really tried. Yet, he could feel Alfred's eyes in his direction, which really distracted him. He ended up having to tell the customer to come back later because he had an urgent situation to solve. The customer didn’t take it well and said he could go to another store in that case but Arthur didn’t back down in his words. He preferred to get known as a tailor who wasn’t easily available to customers rather than as a tailor who made terrible suits for not being able to pay attention to what the customer was saying.

After his client disgruntled left his establishment, Arthur took a deep breath and stepped forward to Alfred, with his arms crossed over his chest and a serious expression, which he hoped would disguise his feelings.

"So ... What do you want with me?" He asked.

"Oh, lots of things." Alfred replied with a slightly nervous laugh. He rubbed the back of his neck. Apparently, he did it when he was a little shy. "First ... I wanted to apologize. You know… about taking so long to come again."

"It's okay." Arthur said in a composed, dry tone. "I just got worried ... There’s bills that I need to pay. I was counting on that money.”

"Yeah, it was pretty irresponsible of me not to come sooner. I won’t deny it. "Alfred shook his head with a grimace. "I’m really sorry. Most of the time, I was just gathering the courage to ask you something."

Would he ask for a discount?

"What is it?" Arthur squinted his eyes.

Alfred opened his mouth to say something but when his eyes met Arthur's, he quickly averted his look and a slight blush rose up his neck.

Huh.

Alfred remained in a suspicious and uncomfortable silence, looking a bit shy.  

Oh damn. He really seemed about to ask for a discount or more time to pay his debt.

"How was the wedding?" Arthur asked to clear the mood. He immediately regretted his choice of question, remembering how Alfred had reacted to simply wearing his suit for the wedding, although, contradicting his expectations, Alfred reacted well.

"Oh, it was pretty fun." Alfred answered nonchalantly. "I got to see a lot of friends, danced a lot… It was a nice night overall. Not to mention a bunch of people said that I look pretty fine.”

"I'm glad to hear it." Arthur replied, unable to contain a small smile.

Alfred gave Arthur a very meaningful look. Whatever the meaning was, the intention was definitely there.

"I wanted to thank you for that day." he said in a more serious tone than usual for him. "I... To be honest, I thought I was over Brad before that day. Since he started dating Marianne, I knew that he was pretty serious about her. After all, I know Brad." Alfred rolled his eyes with a small smile. "I noticed that he was head-over-heels for this girl and I ... I decided it was a good time for me to move on as well. I was feeling better about it but ... when I saw myself in my suit and thought about what it would be like to be in the church next to Brad, I just... fell apart, you know? It was really dumb but I felt terrible. I had a lot of emotions sleeping inside my chest and they all got up all of sudden."

Arthur nodded slowly. He understood but he didn’t know what to say.

"I guess I needed to vent to somebody else to really get over him." Alfred sighed contentedly and relieved. "I've never talked to anyone about it. Being able to talk to you without being afraid of being judge was ... Wow, that was great. It felt really good. "

Arthur was about to say a ‘you’re welcome’ when Alfred quickly added something that took his words and breath away.

“I was also thinking that we could go out someday." he said in a single breath, staring at the ground.

Arthur got honestly incredulous, flabbergasted, that he had just heard what he thought he had just heard.

"Oh, I see… For the old days, right?" He asked, trying to keep his expectations low so as not to be disappointed.

"That too." Alfred laughed with a bit of a squeak in his voice. "But I meant it more like a date."

…  A date.

"Don’t stare at me like that! It’s embarrassing!"Alfred requested, looking very, very red. "It's my first time asking a guy out! I don’t know what I'm doing!"

Though his pessimism and skepticism tried to envelop Arthur like clouds of smoke, the strong breeze that were Alfred's words were pushing those clouds farther and farther away and letting him see things more clearly. Alfred was serious. He really wanted to have a date with him.

"You ... Why me?" Arthur tried to understand.

"I always found you cute and interesting. Since high school. However ... because I had stronger feelings for Brad, I've never went after you. That was something I regretted a lot later, you know?"Alfred rubbed the back of his neck again. It was really a nervous habit. "To be honest, when I found out on facebook that you made suits, I thought that was a perfect chance to talk to you again. I came to your store because I wanted to see you and see if I could make up for my wrong choice ... I tried to flirt with you a bit ... I don’t know if you noticed. Haha. Like I said, I don’t know how to flirt with guys. Anyway…  As you must have noticed, I screwed up. I got emotional about Brad’s wedding and I ended up talking about Brad's story with you when you're the last person that should have heard that. That was the opposite of what I had planned! I was so ... embarrassed and frustrated with myself that I couldn’t even gather the courage to talk with you again until now. I felt like a fool. I couldn’t believe my feelings for Brad were once again blocking me from ask you out."

Arthur felt his whole face warm. He was confused, amazed, and exultant. All at once. He couldn’t guess at all how all those emotions were appearing on his countenance.

"Look, I'm sorry for that, but can you give me a chance?" Alfred asked vulnerable. "That whole thing with Brad ... Well, it was something that lasted a long time in my life, so it still has an effect on me but I really want to move on and just have a nice friendship with him now.  Also, I really want to date someone new but…  there's no other guy I've thought of going out with besides him and you.”

An adolescent Arthur would have accepted that request without even hesitating. A mature Arthur, though, despite feeling a bit dizzy with the many emotions he was experiencing, wasn’t ready to jump at the opportunity without analyzing the risks. He thought about it.

He didn’t want to be used just for Alfred to get over Brad. He was afraid to get disappointed later. It was safer and more comfortable to have no expectations than to have them and lose them. That was why he hardly got into relationships, in the first place.

He really thought about saying no but then ... He saw Alfred's eyes. Those same blue eyes that had always made him sigh in the past. They had by no means lost their charm because they had lost some of the youthful innocence and overconfidence they had in the past. It was clear from those eyes that Alfred had experienced difficult things and been changed by them. Still, they continued to shine. They were begging, hopeful and nervous, but even in this mess of feelings, they remained completely beautiful and they were completely turned to Arthur at that moment.

Arthur decided that, what the hell, he might be a little unreasonable once in his life.

"Dating or not, you're still going to have to pay me for the suit." he stated. "Also, for dinner."

A smile lit up like a million suns on Alfred's face and he suddenly held Arthur by the waist, lifting him up in the air.

“Artie! You’re not gonna regret it, I promise you!”

Embarrassed, Arthur frowned and started giving weak slaps to his shoulders.

"P-Put me down! I'm not saying that I'm going to date you! It's just a dinner! Also, I-If you give me reason to think you'd rather be with someone else, I will...! "

"Don’t worry. That won’t happen." Alfred promised with a determined grin, before putting Arthur back on the ground.

 

* * *

That didn’t happen, indeed.

The only reason Arthur ever had to be jealous of Alfred was when he decided to get a suit for their wedding from another tailor.

"Aw, come on, Artie! I did this to surprise ya! You didn’t mind calling Brad to the party but you got upset because I brought my suit with somebody else??”

“Exactly! I know you enough to be sure that you won’t cheat on me as a lover but still, you cheated on me as a customer!

“C’mon, babe.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, guys! I hope you enjoyed this story! If you did, please leave me a review letting me know your thoughts! I promise to answer them all!^^


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